LHE-7600: Strategic Planning and Operations in Higher Education

Suskie, L. A., & Ikenberry, S. O. (2015). Five dimensions of quality: A common sense guide to accreditation and accountability. Jossey-Bass.
Read Chapters 2-4, pp. 11-48. Suskie and Ikenberry provide a brief outline of the current regional accreditation process in the U.S. and a history of how this process evolved. She also discusses the various dimensions of institutional quality and then answers the question as to why change is so difficult within higher education. Improving our institutions is a straightforward goal, yet it seems riddled with roadblocks when implementing plans, strategies, and operations.

Arnold, N., Voight, M., Morales, J., Dancy, K., & Coleman, A. (2019). Informing improvement: Recommendations for enhancing accreditor data-use to promote student success and equity. In Institute for Higher Education Policy. Institution for Higher Education Policy.
This report provides an excellent overview of the data required of institutions by different accreditation associations. The authors make the case that accreditors should demand more data from their members to measure and communicate key success metrics to stakeholders. The data challenges for accreditors are the same for institutions. There are inconsistent definitions for measures and data lags. It is hard for institutions to agree on measures and outside stakeholders use results for punitive purposes instead of improvement.

Kumanr. P., Shukla, B., & Passey, D. (2020). Impact of accreditation on quality and excellence in higher education institutions. Investigación Operational, 41(2), 151-167.
This article is important because it discusses the role of accreditation on an international scale and how accreditation leads to increased enrollment for institutions. After all, accreditation is seen as a stamp of quality. The authors discuss various models of quality as well as other factors demonstrating institutional quality.